Posted
by
Unknown Lamer
on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @08:23AM
from the hope-you-don't-work-at-nokia dept.

mrspoonsi (2955715) writes with news that Microsoft is reportedly planning a major staff reduction that would top Steve Ballmer's record 5,800-head layoff in 2009. From the article: The reductions — which may be unveiled as soon as this week — will probably be in areas such as Nokia and divisions of Microsoft that overlap with that business, as well as marketing and engineering, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t public.

This is a normal cyclical occurrence in companies such as Microsoft, they'll have skimmed off the kids who can actually write C++ compiled binary and assembler software well, and thrown the rest out. I know from years of experience, you'll think you are in a room full of programmers but in reality there will approximately two brainy kids amongst 200. This is the nature of human intelligence, it's a rare commodity and MOST people are “wannabes.”

Then there's the people who can do it but spend all day on Slahsd... oh shit I'd better get some work done!

I agree with almost everything there however MSFT's core is Office/Exchange, Windows is a vehicle to get you to Office. If Office were really on Linux I think you'd see Windows practically disappear. I don't think they can move quickly enough but they're not going away anytime soon. IBM on the other hand will be out of business or a frail shell of its former self. The C-Level at IBM are idiots and it's being proven with bad market strategies and eroding margins. Cutting yourself to prosperity doesn't work. Pruning poor / nonperforming units can make sense but at some point you have to ask "Are we cutting our nose off to spite our face?"